Before I left home I baited up spots around the lake that were unfished, with a tiny amount of 16mm Krill Active. Every trip I had seen rotten boilies drifting on the surface in the corner where the wind had been blowing, mainly due to the few fish that reside in the lake and it was clear other anglers were applying too much bait during their sessions. There was only a small carp population, a few handfuls of tench and about a dozen of both coots and tuftys.

At the start of the fourth session I repeated baiting up spots here and there, and halfway through that session a break-through came. The carp, and tench, became much more active with the splendid low air pressure and the carp started showing on two of the spots I had previously baited. I jumped straight on it and hooked into my first carp later that day, which turned out to be a young mirror in the 35-pound bracket.

Despite the conditions, it never really looked that promising with the carp being held up in the central part of the lake above deeper water. With heavy rainfall hitting the previous weekend, it clearly cooled off the shallower water which forced them into uncatchable areas.

As the second day came, so did my change in fortune as that moment I had humbly dared to hope for, was about to become reality. Never could I have predicted it to happen the way it did.

With only one carp leaving a noticeable wave behind it, one of those fish was leaving a small V-shape wave behind it, I could only assume it was the big one. The fish seemed to become more active as the day wore on, swimming small laps over the central area, but then the larger shape started making its way towards my direction, more specifically to the spot I was fishing. As soon as the shape came into the vicinity of the rig, the waves disappeared as it dropped onto the small clay spot, but to my surprise, nothing materialised. As I knew the rig had been sat on the spot for 2 nights, my uncertainty regarding the presentation grew.

After I saw a small fish roll over the spot not much later – in hindsight that fish might just have been the small common that the record fish always is accompanied by – I decided to take a gamble and reposition the rod. Very slowly I directed the little boat to the area and dropped the rig and two Krill Active freebies, thinking the chance had gone anyway. Fifteen minutes later I was proved wrong, as that same rod ripped off. Before I even picked up the rod, I knew my “moment de gloire” had come. This was it – this is the dream!

As you can imagine the fish felt heavy, but it never really fought that hard. After the initial surge, it hid behind the deep slope out in front for a while holding its ground, but then calmly let itself be hoisted up from the depths towards my net. It all happened in a bit of a blur. Ever since Darrel Peck had brought that big mirror into view by capturing it some three years ago, I had dreamt about holding this incredible carp!

When you put so much effort into targeting one fish, you always dream of your moment with that particular carp; however, no words can summarise my relief and emotion on this memorable day.

The buzz is real and feels like it might never wear off – a dream come true!